Long-awaited Middletown senior center opens Dec. 15

Published 10:05 am, Sunday, December 7, 2014

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Renderings for the new Middletown Senior / Community Center

Renderings for the new Middletown Senior / Community Center

Photo: File Photo

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Renovations at the Middletown Senior/Community Center at 61 Durant Terrace are finally complete. The new facility includes an arts and crafts studio, cafeteria, billiards room and library. Staff from the city’s recreation and community services department are moving in all this week. less

Renovations at the Middletown Senior/Community Center at 61 Durant Terrace are finally complete. The new facility includes an arts and crafts studio, cafeteria, billiards room and library. Staff from the ... more

Photo: File Photo

Long-awaited Middletown senior center opens Dec. 15

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MIDDLETOWN >> A little over a year after breaking ground, the city will officially open its new senior center on Dec. 15.

The city announced that it would transfer operations from 150 William St. to the Eckersley-Hall building at 61 Durant Terrace over the next week.

There will be a draw-down on programming throughout the week beginning Dec. 8, although the William Street facility will still serve lunch that week and buses will still leave from that location.

“We are moving staff in all of next week, barring any major snow issues or anything of that nature,” said Joe Samolis, who chairs the Eckersley-Hall Building Committee. “On the 15th our goal is to open and have a soft opening for the public.”

Samolis said there would likely be a formal opening sometime in January.

“We have more space that will allow us to do more programming, both for the senior population and the community as a whole,” said Samolis. The new location “is a modern space that has modern amenities to make it easier for people to use as well.”

It’s been a years-long effort to move seniors from their cramped location on William Street, abutting senior housing at Sbona Towers. The city’s purchase of the St. Sebastian School from the Norwich Diocese in early 2011 for $800,000 set the project in motion.

The building was first constructed in the late 1800s, then burned down, and a local contractor finally rebuilt it and completed it in 1929.

New features are a game room with pool tables to attract more men to the center, a full dining room that can be used as lecture space, a welcoming lobby area and reception, three multi-purpose exercise spaces, a private health screening room, socialization and television quarters, and a meeting room with a large conference area.